As soon as DreamWorks Animation’s caveman cartoon The Croods hit theaters and earned over $44 million in its opening weekend, there was no doubt a sequel was inevitable. There were no guarantees that the film’s principal cast would be coming back to reprise their roles, but it was hard to imagine any circumstances that would have to happen to prevent them. In an interview with directors Chris Sanders and Kirk DeMicco, Coming Soon has confirmed that Nicolas Cage, Emma Stone and Ryan Reynolds will indeed be coming back for the second flick, tentatively called The Croods 2. Still not as good as getting Cage to play an actual caveman in a live-action film, but it’s probably the closest we’ll get.

Still in a few dozen theaters here in the States, The Croods is the ninth most profitable movie of 2013 so far, earning over $187 million domestically, with a worldwide total of over $585 million. The film wasn't great in quality terms, but it was better than Turbo and beat the diminishing returns of the Madagascar series - to me at least. For anyone thinking a Croods sequel could just write itself, however, Sanders’ words aren’t exactly encouraging.

Said the director, “There’s not much to talk about yet because we’ve got a big lump of clay and we’re forming it as we speak.” They do have plans to fill the world with some ideas that went unused in the first one. “[There will be] lots of good creatures,” confirms DeMicco. “We’ve got creatures that never got into the first movie. We’re going to take a very, very close look at those.” Hot damn! Creatures!

There's no word just yet on the return of the supporting cast, which included Catherine Keener, Clark Duke and Cloris Leachman, but I can’t imagine they’d all turn down this fairly easy paycheck. I still don’t understand why Clark Duke’s comedic gifts aren’t being used in every other movie at this point in his career, but every film counts, I guess.

Currently filming Vic Amrstrong’s readaptation of Left Behind, Cage will soon be seen in what will hopefully be a late-career-high role in David Gordon Green’s Joe. Reynolds was recently seen (or more accurately not seen) in the box office tanker R.I.P.D. as well as the aforementioned Turbo, but his next film, the comedy horror The Voices sounds pretty amazing. Stone will be returning to the role of Gwen Stacey in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 for Marc Webb, and I can’t wait to see her in Alejandro González Iñárritu’s ensemble comedy Birdman next year.

You can pick up The Croods on Blu-ray and DVD when it hits stores on October 1. Relive the Stone Age magic in the trailer below.